The Mass Ornament

In defining the components of "the mass ornament," Kracauer describes the social phenomena of a group of people or community acting collectively in a manner that erases any sense of individualism among each of its members. Thus, the act (the mass ornament) assumes a single identity, void of its once individual members. Kracauer describes this process using the Tiller Girls, a group of female dancers. In any other scenario at the time, a single girl in a somewhat revealing outfit that was able to preform various dance routines flawlessly would garner attention. But when combined with dozens of other girls of relatively the same physical appearence and skill level, the same girl's individualism is lost and just becomes a part of the larger group- the mass ornament.

The same concept happened in The Triumph of the Will. Throughout each rally in the "documentary," each soldier marched in the same fashion, wore the same uniform, and displayed the same sense of national pride. Much like the Tiller Girls, the Nazi "soldiers" would appear significant individually, but when grouped with dozens or hundreds of others identical soldiers, the sense of individualism was lost for the sake of the mass ornament. However, I believe The Triumph of the Will takes this concept a bit further. As a "documentary," the audience in the streets is just as much a part of the mass ornament as the soldiers are. Often shown out of focus, but with the same sense of admiration for Hitler and his soldiers, the individuality of the German people is lost as a part of the spectacle; because of the scripted nature/purpose of this documentary, the spectators are just as much of the mass ornament as the marching soldiers were. I would even claim that despite Riefenstahl's attempts to single out Hitler, he is also a part of the mass ornament according to Kracauer. A primary goal of The Triumph of the Will was to make Hitler stand out as a grand singularity above the masses, but because he is as much of a scripted part of the documentary as any other person that appears in The Triumph of the Will, he is another cog of the mass ornament.